[Copyright 2002, From The Wilderness Publications and Michael C. Ruppert,

www.copvcia.com.

All rights
reserved. May be reprinted, copied, distributed or posted on the internet for non-profit
purposes only.]

FTW, January 15, 2002 ? In the exploding popcorn mix of new Enron investigations,
increasingly
focusing on possible criminal misconduct by accounting giant Arthur Andersen, a Justice
Department
spokesperson has told FTW that a contract for Andersen to review sensitive FBI management
and
recordkeeping procedures has been unaffected.

Recent statements by Senators Joseph Lieberman (D?CT) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) indicating
that
investigations of Andersen may turn criminal, and a January 14 commentary by CNN?s Lou
Dobbs
indicating that the scandal may put the company out of business, raise serious questions
about the
Department of Justice?s contract calling for Andersen to ?review the FBI?s management
practices,
including recordkeeping, technology and human resources issues,? as described in an August
29, 2001
story by reporter Kellie Lunney on the website www.GovExec.com. This is especially relevant
since FBI
agents will themselves be investigating Andersen in newly announced DoJ probes related to
Enron.

The Gov Exec story, relying on documents from the Federal Register, detailed that, ?In July,
Justice
and FBI officials revealed that more than 400 weapons and 180 laptop computers ? including
some
holding sensitive and classified information ? were missing from the agency. The FBI has
faced harsh
criticism over the last few months, most notably for its failure to turn over all documents to
lawyers
for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, a controversy that resulted in a temporary
postponement
of McVeigh?s execution.?

In August, Attorney General John Ashcroft authorized the creation of a special commission to
evaluate
years of serious and well-documented FBI lapses ranging from mishandling of key evidence
in the crime
lab, as exposed by FBI whistleblower Fred Whitehurst, to the loss of sensitive intelligence
materials.
Commission members include former CIA Director William Webster, former Secretary of
Defense William
Cohen, former House Speaker Tom Foley and former HUD Secretary and U.S. Trade Rep Carla
Hills.

According to the GovExec story, ?All of the commission?s meetings will be closed to the
public to
protect sensitive information? according to a July 16 memo from the Justice Department.? The
key
question is, ?Information sensitive to whom, that might damage whose interests??

DoJ spokesman Brian Sierra indicated on January 14, that the issue of Andersen?s contract,
which
would give them access to many of the FBI?s most sensitive files, has not yet been raised in
the
wake of the rapidly evolving Enron debacle. ?As of this moment the contract is still in effect,?
said
Sierra. I can?t speak to the issue and I don?t think the question has been brought up at
Justice.?

Spokespersons for Andersen, headquartered in Chicago, did not return an FTW call asking for
comment.

The obvious conflict of interest could not come at a worse time for an Administration that is
frantically
attempting to get ahead of the Enron scandal. It also comes at a time when the impartiality of
other
government agencies including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the General
Accounting
office is called into question because of the past relationships of the heads of those two
agencies with
the embattled accounting firm. Harvey Pitt at SEC once represented Andersen in his private
law
practice. GAO chief David Walker is a former board member at Andersen whose tenure there
ended in
late 1998, long after the time period in which Andersen has been implicated in the
falsifications of
Enron?s financial statements which began in 1997.

Walker?s former partners may now become the subject of criminal probes by the FBI, the SEC
and the
GAO. Unlike the SEC and the FBI, the GAO is known as the investigative arm of Congress ? the
same
Congress which is now representing itself to be the champion of the public interest. Headed
by Walker
in the Comptroller General position, the GAO remains one of the last defensible positions
that the
government ? both the White House and the Congress ? can offer as a statement of
government
credibility to an increasingly cynical population.

The notion that Andersen could now be trusted to investigate the FBI and gain access to
information
that would damage the FBI?s credibility and possibly be traded off for softer handling for its
own
actions stretches the imagination to the breaking point and beyond. Congress and the
administration
need to understand that by failing to walk the most perfect of lines with Enron and Andersen
they risk
the credibility of the entire government and not just the Bush White House.

A previous FTW story on unexplored conflicts of interest related to Enron is located at:
http://www.copvcia.com/members/
enron_money_laundering.html.